O'Reilly Lawyers Set Up Shop in the Patent Office 190
theodp writes "On the same day Netizens fumed over the trademarking of Web 2.0 (R), lawyers for O'Reilly were beating a path to the USPTO to file for a trademark on MAKER FAIRE, lest some Irish scallywag try to co-opt that catchy phrase for a conference. Speaking of NETIZENS, USPTO records show O'Reilly once sought a trademark for that term. And while details are sketchy, USPTO records also indicate that O'Reilly not only sought to trademark the term WEBSITE, it was the plaintiff in a scheduled Trademark Trial involving a defendant who laid claim to the phrase WEB CITE."
On the subject of Website... (Score:5, Informative)
So as crazy as it seems, they actually had a product to trademark.
Re:On the subject of Website... (Score:5, Informative)
So, the summary is a little misleading as it seems to suggest that they were trying to blanket trademark an obviously generic (even at the time) word.
These make sense (Score:5, Informative)
2) The "Website" trademark application was also for a single use, in this case "computer software used to create a server on a global computer network..". Apparently, O'Reilly used to make a piece of software called "Website Professional [geotrust.com]", and it was this uninspired name they were trying to protect. Again, color me unsurprised.
This entire argument has gone back and forth a million times already, so it's kind of pointless. People who are anti-trademarks will argue that this is word-squatting and that "netizen" and "web 2.0" are public domain words. People who aren't will argue that the trademarks only cover their original uses by O'Reilly and thus using the word(s) netizen on a website or a newspaper or even the cover of a best-selling book is not infringement.
Re:patents != trademark (Score:5, Informative)
This means that in the US:
Patent Office = USPTO
Trademark Office = USPTO
So, even though patent != trademark, we can still conclude that:
Patent Office = Trademark Office
Re:In all seriousness... (Score:4, Informative)
Around the time the "Hacks" series came out. Those are some seriously crappy books, almost without exception.
Manning Press has some really nice books out these days with the "In Action" series.
Re:On the subject of Website... (Score:3, Informative)
1) There is nothing wrong with using everyday words as trademarks. Many consumer products do (just check out your supermarket aisles).
2) Trademarks, when applied for, must describe the market for their good and/or service. A trademark simply protects the good/service in that market, and does not stop anyone from using the word in any other context (or even for any other product/service, given some caveats, e.g. famous marks).
3) Trademarks need to be actively defended, so a C+D letter or even a lawsuit needs to be seen as a necessary requirement to defending a registered mark.
4) A trademark cannot be "held" to block others. A necessary requirement for keeping a trademark is production of your good and/or service. If you never produce anything, you'll lose the trademark. In other words, unscrupulous people aren't going to make much use of trademarks that they aren't actually using.
So, if "dot-net" is registered as a trademark (which it perfectly can), for say a software company or a web 2.0 service, it really doesn't affect anyone except
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)